Rachel
There were some good exchanges between characters but overall it was incredibly long. The murder occurs withing the first chapter or two, and the rest of the book is spent putting together the pieces. I made it to the halfway point before skipping to the end.
The part that stuck me was how “cool” the detectives were about there being a murder/murderer. If I was staying at the potential murderers house while he ran loose, I wouldn't have been so calm about it all.
In short, may be good for sherlock Holmes fans. Otherwise its rather boring and long.
3.5
While enjoyable, this lost the magic of the first. Plot seemed a bit too ridiculous, especially with how smart/quick the main character was in the first book. Seemed almost like two different characters. He should have realized things much sooner.
The unicorn plot seemed eerily similar to The Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle and typical of Brooks, the ending felt rushed.
I did enjoy the new character called the Prism Cat. He was clearly inspired by the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland but still enjoyable. I found myself more interested in his character than the rest of them.
This is hard to rate, so I'm leaving it at a solid 3.
First of all, I listened to the audiobook narrated by Danielle Town, with occasional comments by her father, Phil Town.
There are some helpful points in this book. For example, this is the clearest explanation I've had yet about evaluating the cost of a stock and the psychology you need behind buying/selling. Specifically on understanding that it's not just about the price right now, but a mix of the future cost and what you are losing by inflation.
Now to the negatives. There was so much personal story intertwined with the educational material. It felt like the book couldn't decide what it wanted to be: biography or educational book. Personally, I would have preferred 1/2 of the biography conversations be cut. They weren't necessary and took away from the useful information that the audience is here for.
Overall, I was unimpressed with the majority of the book, but there were some key points that I'm grateful to have read. The best way I can describe it is: far from perfect, but still provides some useful information.
Cute. I wasn't familiar with the original Rainbow Brite, except that it was from the 80's. I thought this was really fun and excited to continue the story. There are rumors that it's cancelled, but other rumors say it depends on performance with this volume. Personally I hope they continue. I think they have a nice little gem here.
Oh how I wanted to love this. I love Dean's podcast and was excited to read this book. It is written just like he talks, which could be a good thing, but not here. It's long winded and seems more like a first draft. Yes, he states in the beginning that the book needed an entire re-write. Instead he searched for a publisher that would take it the way it is. Sorry, but it would benefit from a trim. I could tell there were some gems of advice in the book, but it's surrounded by rubbish.
Oh boy. I can't believe I'm actually categorizing this as a DNF. I've loved this author's other works and it was so disappointing to read this.
First and foremost. This book had so much potential. It had a wonderfully original plotline, but was horrendously written. Even if it was his first book, his depictions of the characters were horrible. It was like what a teenage boy thinks women and adults would be like. The plot was also all over the place. Just as I started to become interested in the plot, he would drop in unnecessary lust scenes, or completely change the plot.
Ah, The Beautiful Pretender. I needed something a little different and found this audiobook via my library app. I wasn't aware it was a christian fiction novel when I started. There were the occasional prayers, but the religion wasn't shoved down my throat. It started more as a YA style fairy tale romance. The second half is where the religious aspect picked up, but it wasn't as overwhelming as some other christian fiction books I've read.
With that out of the way I'll continue my review. The rest of the story is rather interesting. There is intrigue and raised tensions between the lords and ladies of the land. There was a mysterious fire. A death of a nobel. A hidden identity. A dating competition (kinda). Flirting. Suspense. It builds up as a masterpiece theater/bbc drama and ends as a hallmark movie.
It was a bit predictable (ok, it was a LOT predictable). A few scenes are straight out of the movies. The wolf scene was almost an exact copy of the wolf scene in Disney's Beauty and the Beast movie. Still, it was a fun read that I wanted to finish until the end. I don't think the characters are very realistic. I think there were some very preachy moments. I also think the book was predictable. BUT for the genre, it was still a good book and a nice read for the afternoon.
Non-christians shouldn't be discouraged from the book. It's easy to gloss over those moments and enjoy the book for what it is.
Oh What could have been. I really enjoyed Wendy Webb's other books. When I saw this new one I thought “finally!!” A body appears on shore. Mysterious dreams. Past and present. It had all the elements of a good afternoon mystery. Unfortunately this plane never left the ground. It was too slow and had too many characters to fly with.
I listened the the audiobook version of this book narrated by the author.
The Ghost Bride centers around a young girl named Li Lan. Now 17, she is offered the prospect of marriage to a recently deceased man. She is to be his “ghost bride”. She is both appauled by the idea and driven by a sense of duty to marry and support her aging father and Amah (nurse). As the story progresses, Li Lan suddenly finds herself in the spirit world. Navigating the realms of the dead, the reader gets a glimpse into Malaysian/chinese mythology, particularly the customs of their ghost festival.
Overall I enjoyed this story. It was filled with beautiful imagery and lesser known mythology. It's only recently that I learned of the ghost festival. The trip into the realm of the dead was itself rather fascinating. The author did a wonderful job of narration.
Yet, I can't give it 5 stars. While enjoyable, the pacing began to slow halfway through. We are also presented with a variety of characters and never really receive closure on them. It would be nice to have a sequel to wrap up what happens to everyone.
Still this was a refreshing tale that has sparked further interested in chinese/malaysian/asian mythology/folk tales.
More a 4.5-4.75
I thought this was a wonderful graphic novel. It is filled with wonderful illustrations, many which capture the art style of Claude Monet. It also does a nice job humanizing the painter. Too often we learn of historical figures but forget that they were also people and had lives.
I hope this sparks a trend on portraying historical events and biographies in graphic novel format.
Remember that movie you loved that had 2 unnecessary, but still semi-ok sequels? That's what happened here.
What I loved about Book 1:
- Heavy on Fairy/folk tales
- Fast plot
- Unpredictable
- Tomboy heroine who could see the old gods/demons/etc
- Wasn't the classic beauty
- Not a perfect happy ending.
Book 2:
What happened?.... It's not a bad book, but the heart and soul of book 1 was entirely destroyed. This was not the same Vasilisa that I loved in book 1. It was as if Katherine Arden's publisher said “Wow, everyone liked your first book. You must make it into a series now and include all of these YA stereotypes!
- Stupid heroine who makes stupid decisions
- “ugly” heroine is now a beauty and multiple people start falling for her
- Unnecessary romance
- Heroine survives unrealistic battles
- SHOCKING enemy revealed to have been with them all along
- lovers quarrels
- Family drama
- Heroine acts like a whiney brat
- Heroine nearly kills everyone with her stupid decisions
- Heroine is super super super special and only she can save the day!
If I hadn't read the first book, I would consider it a solid YA novel. In fact, it's better than many. But this is nowhere near the level of Book 1. The first book haunted me all year. This book, I'll easily forget about and pretend doesn't really exist. It lost the heart of the original. The first 2/3 of the book barely acknowledge the folk/fairy tales that made book 1 so enjoyable. Aside from a few scenes, I would say it's not even worth re-reading that portion. The last 1/3 was excellent and carried the same heart as book 1. I'm still excited for Book 3, but am now wary. I hope it contains less of the YA character tropes and more of the fairy/folk references which made Book 1 so enjoyable.
TLDR: Publisher clearly got involved and said it needed more YA stereotypes. Bratty heroine, unnecessary romance, tons of Drama. Didn't carry the heart of Book 1.
